Unno Bike: The Pursuit of the Perfect Ride

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What happens when a world champion mountain biker jumps into product design? You get a bike frame cyclists everywhere can't wait to try out.

The Unno is a next-gen carbon fiber mountain bike frame from Cesar Rojo, a top cyclist and CEO of his own design studio in Barcelona. Rojo was so eager to make a product that lived up to his expert standards, that he produced the frame entirely in house.

What does that look like? Check out the video below. In two minutes, you see everything from concept design, to detailed design (yes, that is Creo in the 3D CAD shots, thanks for noticing), to tooling, to manufacturing, to the first trail ride.

We asked Rojo to tell us more:

Tell us a bit about Cero.

Cero was founded in 2010, so we are very young, but we’ve been able to grow quite fast. We’re focused on very high-end products, are very detailed, and have merged design and engineering, and that has paid off. Our main sectors of development are transportation and sports, bicycles and motorcycles are our big things, but we are looking to expand and bring all this expertise into other markets and products.

Cero studios in Barcelona, where products like the Unno carbon fiber bike frame get their start.

What’s the relationship between Unno and Cero exactly?

As a company, Unno is very closely related to Cero, but are kept as two separate companies…for now.

Having 100% control of the process is unique. Tell us more about your decision to keep the entire project in house.

In our case we wanted to make the best bikes out there. Only one option was possible and that meant to have 100% control of the process. For us the design and engineering side of things came easy. We have a lot of experience in that area. But we were completely new to small production, so this was something that took time. Now that we’re doing it, however, we are able now to not only to produce but also design better.

What were some of the challenges in designing Unno?

Design wise it was not that much of a challenge, though producing the frames has been the hardest part. It’s taken more than three years and a team of four people working full time on this. It’s a huge investment, but we totally believe it will pay off in the future.

Unno bike frame close up

What makes it different than other bikes?

Other than the overall performance, it’s the details and the pursuit of perfection. The amount of small details makes a big overall difference.

When will people be able to buy one of their own?

Our plan is to release the Unno by the end of 2016. We’re still waiting for some improvements on the production process to be able to speed it up but we don’t want to rush it.

Unno bike frames are produced entirely in house at Cero, from concept design to manufacturing.

What Creo modules and extensions are you using to produce Unno?

We’ve been Creo users since our beginnings in 2010, and we love it. We are using Creo to put the geometries and kinematics together. We’re using skeletons [for top-down modeling] in the Creo Advanced Assembly Extension. The surfacing is being done with Creo Advanced Surfacing, which gives us a lot of freedom, and we’re using Creo Simulate to do initial checks on metallic parts.

What are you most proud of?

Making everything by ourselves is what makes all of us super proud of this achievement. But the ultimate goal is to make riders happy and see how they enjoy riding the bike.

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This post has been updated from an earlier date.

Cat McClintock

Cat McClintock edits the Creo and Mathcad blogs for PTC. She has been a writer and editor for 15+ years, working for CAD, PDM, ERP, and CRM software companies. Prior to that, she edited science journals for an academic publisher and aligned optical assemblies for a medical device manufacturer. She holds degrees in Technical Journalism, Classics, and Electro-Optics. She loves talking to PTC customers and learning about the interesting work they're doing and the innovative ways they use the software.